


Devoured

by CorruptedCanineCreations



Category: LOVECRAFT H. P. - Works
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 04:43:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11982375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CorruptedCanineCreations/pseuds/CorruptedCanineCreations
Summary: The moon's light casts shadows across the forest, the shadows of the trees and foliage providing cover for those who wish to eat and those who wish not to be eaten. The shadows have eyes; each step must be carefully placed, each breath silently taken lest you wish to be devoured.





	Devoured

**Author's Note:**

> OK this is just a drabble to wiggle around with descriptive imagery, all feedback is greatly appreciated, enjoy!

Though intangible, darkness weighed thick and heavy all around a lone figure whose shape was purely hidden within the dancing shadows of bleak, inky blackness all around it. The shape of a man, or what could be presumed to be a man, moved swiftly and soundlessly through the lush foliage that was sparsely illuminated by the waning crescent of the moon, a mere sliver in the dark void of the sky that held it and the tiny, blinking specks of stars. Mostly void, partially stars, the infinitely expanding universe splayed out above him in the deep sky that bathed the world below it in a shrouding blanket of darkness and incomprehensible infinity. 

Despite such thick underbrush and leaf litter that carpeted the jungle floor, the figure moved with a fluid and silent step, each foot fall precise and careful, barely disturbing even a single leaf. Keen eyes scanned the shadows for whatever may lurk within them, the dangers that the forest retained inside it’s foreboding maze of looming trees whose canopies reached high into the endless nothingness of the sky.

Everything seemed still and quiet but the figure still remained wary, vigilant eyes and ears meticulously scanning each niche and corner of the jungle. Despite the hot, burning sun having found it’s grave beyond the horizon, the hot, thick air still weighed like a wet blanket on the figure’s chest and shoulders, making him feel like he was inhaling water, yet he still kept his breathing quiet and smooth. Silently taken in through the nose and a hot, soft breath released through his parted lips. In, out..in, out..in, out..in, out..in, stop. 

Everything in his body stilled, frozen and stiff. The figure lowly crouched against the base of a tree, hidden in it’s tall, thick roots, knees touching his chest as he scanned across the forest floor. Without light, he was left to rely on his hearing to seek out what had suddenly caused his hairs to stand on end. The damp earth beneath his feet and hands shifted just barely beneath the delicate weight of his body, no movement nor sound betraying what had suddenly brought his attention to high alert. Minutes pulled by like hours, the moon’s journey across the night sky hardly making even the slightest bit of headway as he waited; patient...cautious. 

Perhaps a little over 15 minutes had ticked by, stillness and quiet surrounding the figure, only disturbed by an occasional scurry of tiny paws across the floor or the shifting of a branch high above him. Although his guard was slowly ebbing down, he could still sense a creature, lurking within the shadows just as he himself was; a stand off to see who would move first, who would attack, who would run, who would be predator and who would be prey.

A soft breeze pushed through the trees, leading a stray beam of moonlight to cascade down onto the forest floor, briefly reflecting off of a pair of eyes that seemed to pierce into his soul, locked onto him with the intense stare of a predator ready to pounce. They were pitch black, pupils blending into iris and into a similarly black cornea. The only color he could see was a ring of red, sharp and focused, circling what was most likely the pupil. He stared back just as intensely, challenging yet submissive, ready to fight but not wanting to, ready to kill but likely unable to.  
A low, inhuman sound bubbled from the penumbra cast across the night-locked jungle floor. A deep, throaty growl, gurgling and pouring out from behind rows of white, sharp fangs. Rows of them, sharp and dangerous, all revealed with a snap and crack of a dislocating jaw, unset from it’s normal place like a snake. The nauseating sounds of joints shifting out of place and popping back in paired with a low, guttural snarl that didn’t sound anything like an animal was enough to make his stomach lurch and twist. Bile burned the inside of his throat and he soon heard a splash of liquid and some sort of solids sloshing and splattering onto the forest floor, crushing leaves and still dripping loudly. Petrified in fear, he did not move, watching as the predator grew massively in size out of the brush, shoulders higher than haunches which led him to assume it was a quadruped. The hips of it’s bones and the blades of it’s shoulders was seemingly just one sliver of a cut away from breaking open skin and poking out of the dry, rough hide that blended in with the blackness around it.

The man, still under a spell of fear, watched the gangly, boney creature step out into the few yards of grass between them, view unhindered by the underbrush that he himself hid in. His previously slow and silent breathing grew faster as he watched the beast grow higher, thick, viscous tar dripping from it’s mouth and splashing onto the floor a few meters beneath it’s unhinged and slack jaw. It smelled rancid and sharp and the desire to empty his stomach contents was growing ever more present.

Threatening, deadly claws dug into the dirt, almost human like paws meeting the base of the claws, boney as the rest of the body. The disgustingly slackened maw looked like it was hanging on by the barest threads of muscle and cartilage, the skin around it torn and filled with holes as though burned through by something, likely the tar that singed and burned the leaves where it dripped. The jaw swayed with each step forward and the man could only cower lower and lower, eyes terrified, flickering across the beast, desperate and cornered, pitifully quivering where he crouched.

Perhaps in a stroke of good luck or bad, an even larger beast, one resembling that of a hyena perhaps but with the size of a tiger, lunged from the darkness, revealing that their previous standoff had not been between himself and the beast in front of him, but in fact two beasts who equally wanted him as prey. A powerful roar bellowed from the new beast and the lanky, horrifying leviathan of a predator who was so close to devouring the man, crashed to the floor with a mortifying, desperate shriek. The sounds of tearing flesh and clattering bones, snapping beneath the weight of it’s killer replaced the heavy silence that once controlled the air around them. 

The man watched in awe and with a vile, morbid curiosity. The organs of his near killer spilled with a gushing splatter out of it’s chest and stomach cavity, a powerful jaw and sharp claws ripping and tearing into the thick, tough hide to the warm, bloody flesh below. Bones snapped and loud, terrified wails of a cornered and dying animal filled the air, the putrid scent of blood soon following. 

He sat and watched until cat eye pupils narrowed in on him, the low growl, a warning snarl from bloody chops, snapped him out of his trance. He slowly backed up, low and submissive to the ground before turning tail and running, his panic preventing him from being as cautious and quiet as before. 

He barely escaped with his life, yet the jungle will forever be as relentless and harsh as she always is, unsparingly slaughtering those who are not strong, fast or smart enough to survive. He will not survive. Some other beast, or disease, or perhaps even starvation will soon consume him. But tonight, one night of many, he will live. He will survive through sheer, pathetic luck that some other unholy soul was perhaps a little more fitting of a meal than himself.


End file.
